Answer from Hansard

The Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and European Relations (Mr Hamish Falconer)

There is no British security without Europe and no European security without Britain. The EU is one of our closest partners on foreign and security policy. That is why I was in Austria yesterday meeting a number of our European counterparts, and it is why the Foreign Secretary will travel to Ireland later to meet EU Foreign Ministers. The ambitious security and defence partnership agreed with the EU is boosting co-operation and—as my excellent predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds), noted already—we recently struck a deal to join the EU’s $90 billion Ukraine loan initiative.